


I Can't Wait (For You To Operate)

by iwatobiaquarium (daleked)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Mutual Pining, Omega Verse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 10:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7264243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daleked/pseuds/iwatobiaquarium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is in pre-heat, Steve is in denial.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Marvin Gaye's _Sexual Healing_ , and this fic does mention it too. Thank you, Sam Wilson.

“I’m not saying Stark usually smells nice,” Bucky says innocently, buttering his toast. “But he does today. Right, Steve?” Natasha snorts from beside him, and they bump shoulders conspiratorially.

“What-- okay, he smells great,” Steve says, exasperated and definitely not blushing under the scrutiny. “But there are rules in the workplace. Mating a coworker isn’t encouraged. The training videos said so.”

Natasha raises her eyebrows. “Fury showed you a workplace regulations video?”

“Aye,” Thor pipes up. “I was made to sit in as well. There was even a segment on behaviours that were not acceptable in an omega colleague’s pre-heat. Especially gossiping around the cooler of liquids.” Steve buries his face in his palms.

“Somehow I think working for the Avengers isn’t like being in an office,” Sam points out helpfully. “Just saying, Steve. You could go for it. Technically.”

Bucky nods, biting into the toast. “Tell him, Sam.” 

Sam rubs his hands together and grins. “Okay, Steve. Are you ready to hear words from the Love Doctor?”

“Don’t call yourself that,” Steve mumbles into his hands.

They’re interrupted by the doors leading from Tony’s quarters sliding open.

“Breakfast is the best time of the day,” Tony enthuses, coming towards the dining table. Steve freezes, and Bucky kicks him under the table. Sam smiles into his bowl of cereal.

Natasha pushes the plate of bacon over to the other side of the table as Tony helps himself to coffee. “That’s not what you said last week.”

“Pre-heat will do that to you,” Tony replies, sipping from his mug while eyeing the bacon hungrily. “You just, you know, gotta eat. Where’s Barton?”

“In the vents,” says Clint, from the vents. His voice is oddly muffled. “I had to get up here or you’d fight me for the other plate of bacon.”

Sam nods sagely, and passes the peanut butter to Tony.

+

Steve is trying to read the papers on the sofa when Sam and Bucky come in wearing identical expressions of glee.

“I made a mixtape,” Sam says. “Do you want to know what the first song is?”

“ _No_ ,” Steve says, aghast, and holds the newspaper up higher to try to block them both out. “I do not. Bucky, why are you encouraging this?”

Bucky slides onto the sofa next to him, shrugging nonchalantly. “It’s for a friend who needs to get laid.” Sam takes Steve’s other side and waves the CD in Steve’s face. Bucky swats down the newspaper like an errant cat. The both of them are grinning broadly. Well, Sam is, but the smug look in Bucky’s eyes says everything else.

“In Bucky’s defense he did talk me out of using _Sexual Healing_ ,” Sam adds helpfully. “But point one for Marvin Gaye: he did more than one song about sex. Introducing you to: _Let’s Get It On_. Let the music guide you.”

Steve’s blush is spreading. “Tony’s not interested.”

“He is,” Bucky says firmly, his tone allowing no room for argument. “The amount of pheromone he spews when you two are in the same room would drive any other alpha up the wall. He’s waiting for you to ask to spend the heat with him. Even Clint came out of the vent complaining. Come on, Steve.”

Steve stands up abruptly, cheeks red. “Look, guys, I don’t need help getting in Tony’s pants. Because I don’t want to. Tony is just an omega on my team and I am not attracted to him at all.” His voice nearly cracks on the last sentence, because the blush has officially reached his throat and his ears.

The only sound that follows is the whoosh of the door sliding shut to their left, and all three of them look up. 

Tony blinks at them. His arms are limp by his side, and he’s holding two protein shake bottles, both of which are full of that health shake he chugs when coffee isn’t within reach. The hurt expression on his face vanishes quickly, and he smiles cheerfully. It doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Hey, what’s this about not being up for it with me?” The smile is still on Tony’s face and Steve takes a step towards him. “Everyone wants a piece of this.”

“Tony, listen--”

Tony evades him neatly, still holding onto the bottles. “Uh, Cap, you might have gotten the wrong idea before. About omegas and heat in this era, I mean. I’ll tell Fury to send you the workplace regulations tape again. It’s even still in VHS form, so you guys won’t have a problem with that. I have to go... Give this to Bruce, I guess.” He spins on his heel and flees the living room.

Steve turns to Sam and Bucky. 

“I just--” Sam’s eyes are wide. “Steve, I’m sorry.”

Bucky stands up. “Ya got nothin’ t’apologize for, Sam,” he says, and his voice is rough. It softens only marginally when he turns to Steve. “Look, if you don’t get your head out of your ass I’m pretty sure Natasha is five seconds away from locking you in a room with Stark and I’m gonna be right there helping her do it. And Sam’s just trying t’help. But you won’t let him.”

The both of them can hear Sam mumble _I can fight my own battles_ under his breath, but his eyes shine just _so_ when he looks at Bucky, so they know there isn’t any real heat behind that.

Bucky takes a step closer. “What’s stopping you?” Steve sits on the sofa beside Sam and massages his temples.

“I don’t want to ruin what I have with him. Biology aside it took time to build this friendship. It’s not just because he’s had shit alphas in the past, but I just--” Steve exhales. “He makes me feel like this could be where I belong.”

+

“Brucie, baby,” Tony says, tone deliberately light. “Care for something green?”

There’s the sound of someone dropping a wrench. “Um, yes?”

“Good,” Tony says, and walks over to set both of the shakes on the table. “This was for someone else, but the Good Captain was busy.”

Bruce wants to say: _busy ogling you when you’re not looking_ , but he catches sight of Tony’s expression and swallows his words. Clint-style humor would not be appropriate at this moment, no.

“Was he?” Bruce asks. 

Tony shrugs. “Busy making it very clear that he wasn’t interested in me.”

Bruce winces and tries to pretend that he didn’t. “Oh, okay.”

“And I knew this could have been a possibility. That’s why I kept to myself the past few heats, got a nice alpha to tide me over in the privacy of the penthouse,” Tony gestures wildly. “Every three months, like clockwork, Pep got her nice alpha friend to come by in my pre-heat, and he’d leave me with these dumb little packets of pheromone that I could use while sitting on a knotted dildo, because I had this ridiculous idea that all I had to do was wait until Cap figured out he was attracted to me and we could just get busy on my next heat. Today he made it very clear that he didn’t want to.”

Bruce can only sit and watch as Tony paces his lab, getting increasingly agitated. 

“I’ve been around, I get it. And I don’t think all the work of propositioning someone should be all on the alpha, either. I just didn’t want to scare him off, Bruce. Turns out I didn’t have to worry about all of that, because he doesn’t want this.” Tony sweeps a hand down his body demonstratively, but his tone is self-deprecating. “What’s the point of being Time Magazine’s Sexiest Omega of the Year with all those weird media alphas sniffing around me, if I can’t even get the alpha I'm interested in?”

“Maybe he was just nervous,” Bruce says gently. “You know.”

Tony shakes his head. “I’m going to just get Pep. J, you listening?”

“Yes,” Jarvis says.

Tony waves a hand at the ceiling. “Tell Pep she can send Will over, and he can stay for my entire heat this time. I’m done waiting. Thanks for listening, Bruce.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Steve meets Will.

"I'm here to pick up my parcel," Steve says politely to one of the ladies manning the front desk of Stark Towers, fidgeting nervously as the people waiting behind him cough pointedly. "I got a call?" 

Steve had ordered a new set of pencils through Jarvis an hour ago, and using Tony Stark’s card meant that goods got here fast. _What better time than now to get some art done,_ Steve had convinced himself. Better than thinking about Tony, at any rate. This would be better for the both of them. No messy emotions, no relationship that would go sour and ruin the Avengers. None of that alpha/omega stuff. This was fine.

"Yes." One of the receptionists hands Steve a small package from somewhere underneath the desk. Her smile is tight and frazzled, and she looks at the crowd behind waiting behind him. "Mr. Rogers, we'd also like to kindly request you escort this gentleman upstairs? William Keynes. He's a guest of Mr. Stark's. We'd go ourselves but we're swamped today and it would be impolite if we sent him upstairs alone."

Steve takes the parcel gratefully and nods before turning to the guest. "Sure, I'll..." The response dies in his throat as he looks at him. William Keynes, did they call him? He's an alpha, clear as day. Why would Tony have an alpha guest over during pre-heat?

"Please come with me," Steve finds himself saying, tone even as he nods at Keynes. "Tony's upstairs."

Keynes smiles. " How do you do, Captain America?" He's not American. British, with an accent crisp enough to cut cloth.

"Just Steve is fine," Steve says, and heads for the private lifts. Keynes keeps up with him easily, falling into place by his side.

"Yes, and you can call me Will. I must say, this is the first time I've met an Avenger other than Tony. It's a pleasure." _He's chatty_ , Steve thinks, punching in the button for the Avengers' quarters. He doesn't want to like William Keynes. Doesn't want to trust him, even. But Will's tone isn't malicious, only tinged with an undercurrent of awe. Steve allows himself to take a deeper breath, subconsciously clutching the package in his hands a little tighter. Will's scent is more telling. He's expectant, a little nervous, a little excited. Expectant? Why?

"No, we're just regular guys," Steve says belatedly, catching himself in time. "Except Natasha. She's not a guy, and if she heard me say that she'd probably have my head."

Will laughs." I think Black Widow is terrifying, too." Steve looks at Will properly this time, alpha-to-alpha. Steve beats him out in the height and width department, but Will is no slouch either. He looks like he puts in the hours at the gym, and it shows. His face is classically handsome, and his hair is a shade of dark blonde that reminds Steve of raw gold ore.

Will puts up his hands when he catches Steve staring. "Hey, man. The last time another alpha looked at me like that I was on the road outside the pub getting the lights punched out of me."

Steve looks away quickly, embarrassed at being caught staring. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

"Twenty nine," Will says, rocking back on his heels. "I'm an actor. Auditioned to play you in a musical, but they gave it to someone broader and blonder."

Steve bobs his head. "I'm sorry."

Will waves it away. "I'm not. Looking at you, I kinda get why. I ended up in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, so that's fine. Nabbed the part of Stanley too, so it's all good, I just switch gotta switch up the accent." Steve nods along as Will talks, mystified. What would Tony want with an actor? 

When they arrive, Tony is waiting outside the lift.

“Will!” Tony greets casually, ignoring Steve completely. “I thought you knew your way up. How long did they keep you waiting?”

Will’s smile is bright and positively blinding. He’s looking at Tony with pure adoration in his eyes, and something inside of Steve twists painfully. “The receptionists still think I need to be escorted up. These are your private quarters, right? The whole... Alpha visiting a single omega without a chaperone thing still makes people gasp.”

“You’re welcome in here any time,” Tony says, and sticks his chin out defiantly. Steve catches a flash of his pheromone glands, swelling up slowly under his skin in preparation for his heat, and looks away immediately, pretending not to have seen anything. Will laughs good-naturedly.

“Pepper said the same about visiting you.” Tony grabs him by the hand, still not looking at Steve, and pulls Will towards the rooms. When they disappear behind the double set of doors talking about how Pepper is doing these days, Steve loosens his grip on the parcel, which is partially crushed under his fingers.

Oh.

Well. It’s settled. Tony has no shortage of willing alphas, which makes sense, because he _is_ New York’s most eligible omega. Past eligible, if some scandal rags have anything to say about that, but to Steve, Tony’s perfect the way he is. That’s probably what’s making it hard to let go. Just gotta find something else to focus on.

Bucky finds Steve methodically ripping the packaging for the parcel into tiny pieces, five minutes later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the responses, everyone! [THIS IS WILL](http://65.media.tumblr.com/8cee2479b438e7e28549009ad010edb1/tumblr_nyl4ejtaAL1tvq3m3o2_1280.jpg). You can tell what fandom I used to be part of, I think. If you guess right you get a cookie, ffnet-style. If you cringed reading the sentence before this, thank you, because that's the whole point of this story.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a good old-fashioned ff.net style fic with heapings of old tropes. This is as indulgent for me as it is for you. You know that terrible fic you read years ago in your first fandom where the characters misunderstood each other and there was jealousy involved and some other fun stuff, and it was so terrible and it made you cringe but it was so great to read? Yeah. I want to recreate that experience for myself. So tell me what you thought of this. I can be found on [tumblr](http://ukedio.tumblr.com/) too.


End file.
